Single-Row Functions

Numeric Functions

Numeric functions accept numeric input and return numeric values. Most numeric functions that return NUMBER values that are accurate to 38 decimal digits. The transcendental functions COS, COSH, EXP, LN, LOG, SIN, SINH, SQRT, TAN, and TANH are accurate to 36 decimal digits. The transcendental functions ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, and ATAN2 are accurate to 30 decimal digits. The numeric functions are:

Character Functions Returning Character Values

Character functions that return character values return values of the following data types unless otherwise documented:

• If the input argument is CHAR or VARCHAR2, then the value returned is VARCHAR2.

• If the input argument is NCHAR or NVARCHAR2, then the value returned is NVARCHAR2.

The length of the value returned by the function is limited by the maximum length of the data type returned.

• For functions that return CHAR or VARCHAR2, if the length of the return value exceeds the limit, then Oracle Database truncates it and returns the result without an error message.

• For functions that return CLOB values, if the length of the return values exceeds the limit, then Oracle raises an error and returns no data.

The character functions that return character values are:

NLS Character Functions

The NLS character functions return information about the character set. The NLS character functions are:

Character Functions Returning Number Values

Character functions that return number values can take as their argument any character data type.

The character functions that return number values are:

Datetime Functions

Datetime functions operate on date (DATE), timestamp (TIMESTAMP, TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE, and TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE), and interval (INTERVAL DAY TO SECOND, INTERVAL YEAR TO MONTH) values.

Some of the datetime functions were designed for the Oracle DATE data type (ADD_MONTHS, CURRENT_DATE, LAST_DAY, NEW_TIME, and NEXT_DAY). If you provide a timestamp value as their argument, then Oracle Database internally converts the input type to a DATE value and returns a DATE value. The exceptions are the MONTHS_BETWEEN function, which returns a number, and the ROUND and TRUNC functions, which do not accept timestamp or interval values at all.

The remaining datetime functions were designed to accept any of the three types of data (date, timestamp, and interval) and to return a value of one of these types.

All of the datetime functions that return current system datetime information, such as SYSDATE, SYSTIMESTAMP, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, and so forth, are evaluated once for each SQL statement, regardless how many times they are referenced in that statement.

The datetime functions are:

General Comparison Functions

The general comparison functions determine the greatest and or least value from a set of values. The general comparison functions are:

Conversion Functions

Conversion functions convert a value from one data type to another. Generally, the form of the function names follows the convention datatype TO datatype. The first data type is the input data type. The second data type is the output data type. The SQL conversion functions are:

Large Object Functions

The large object functions operate on LOBs. The large object functions are:

Collection Functions

The collection functions operate on nested tables and varrays. The SQL collection functions are:

Hierarchical Function

The hierarchical function applies hierarchical path information to a result set.

Data Mining Functions

The data mining functions operate on models that have been built using the DBMS_DATA_MINING package or the Oracle Data Mining Java API. The SQL data mining functions are:

XML Functions

The XML functions operate on or return XML documents or fragments. These functions use arguments that are not defined as part of the ANSI/ISO/IEC SQL Standard but are defined as part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. The processing and operations that the functions perform are defined by the relevant W3C standards. The table below provides a link to the appropriate section of the W3C standard for the rules and guidelines that apply to each of these XML-related arguments. A SQL statement that uses one of these XML functions, where any of the arguments does not conform to the relevant W3C syntax, will result in an error. In particular, of special note is the fact that not every character that is allowed in the value of a database column is considered legal in XML.

For more information about selecting and querying XML data using these functions, including information on formatting output, refer to Oracle XML DB Developer's Guide. The SQL XML functions are:

Encoding and Decoding Functions

The encoding and decoding functions let you inspect and decode data in the database.

NULL-Related Functions

The NULL-related functions facilitate null handling. The NULL-related functions are:

Environment and Identifier Functions

The environment and identifier functions provide information about the instance and session. These functions are: